Bugs In Chex Quest 3

[Enjay]

Hi there.  I'd been looking for a thread like this, but couldn't find it.  So I've been posting here

http://chexquest.org/index.php?topic=918.120

and modifying my copy of the WAD that was posted by other people in that same thread.  However, Manny Cav has just pointed me in the direction of this thread.  I guess what I should do now is let you know what is in my fixed WAD and you can let me know what, if any, of it you need.  The easiest for me would, of course, be to upload the entire thing but seeing as how there may be different versions of the maps etc, that may not be practical.  So, I'll let you know what I have done:

The following mapping changes have been made.  I just went through the maps and used the DeePsea error checker.  Anything it flagged up I fixed.  Some things were very minor and probably don't matter but I fixed them anyway.

E1M3 - a sector near the end is type 21.  As far as I know, this is not a valid sector type so I set it to type 0.  It still works as it ever did (ie it gets bright when you cross a line).

E1M5 - There was a vertex right on a line which was causing a minor rendering glitch, so I moved it slightly.

E2M5 - There was a missing texture

E3M1 - a few minor fixes, including some unclosed sectors/invalid sector references.

E3M2 - Something very minor here, but I forget what it was.

E3M3 - Unclosed sectors/sector references fixed.  Also, as has been mentioned in this thread, the only way to the blue key is by jumping.  This is the only place in the entire game (as far as I can tell) where jumping is essential to progress.  I put a small step at one end of the balcony to allow the player to get over the balcony wall and down to the blue key rather than having to jump.

E3M4 - Quite a few lines had invalid texture names on them.  All of these were on lines that should never be seen anyway but they caused error messages at the console.  I think, again, there may have been some unclosed sectors.

E3M5 - Some more unclosed sectors.  1 switch that was a single use one needed to be repeatable to stop you getting stuck in a room.  Lower textures missing from the rising lift.  The doors that are opened by shooting the walls sometimes didn't get opened if there were no stray shots hitting the walls (it happens).  This is in the area with the pink shootable electical/green goo gizmos.  Also, I noticed that a bunch of lines in that area look as if they were intended to be tagged to the appropriate doors as they have the right tag, but no line special.  I made one of these have a suitable special so that if you progress into the room with the switch that opens the doors giving access to the slime key, the hidden doors open and don't rely on the player randomly deciding to shoot walls for the hell of it.  However, IMO, this would be better addressed by using a script to open the doors if the player shoots all the pink electrical thingys.

So, there you go, all those mapping issues exist, and have been fixed in my copy, but if those maps have been worked on elsewhere, then I guess that isn't ideal.

In addition, I have tweaked the following resources.

The rocket sprite is not longer backwards when viewed side-on.  This can be fixed by either renaming it or flipping the sprite in a graphics program.  I used the second method, keeping the lump names as they are, then put the sprites back in the wad with correct offsets.

An enemy (the big guy using the BOSS sprite names) was also backwards when viewed from any direction other than front or back on.  Again, sprites were extracted, reversed and inserted back into the WAD with suitable offsets.

And finally, Around 25 sounds (mainly older ones that I suspect would have originally been put in a WAD using DMAUD, which sometimes added a click to the end of sounds) had a very audible and annoying click at the end (especially annoying with the pickup sounds).  So, I edited all of these  and put them back in the wad sans clicks.

I also sorted out the order of the lumps because the maps were in a non numerical jumble and some patches were outside the P_* markers.




So, that's everything I have done.  Do you want me to upload this WAD anywhere?


In addition, I noticed that there are a lot of doors in the maps where the doortracks have not been lower-unpegged so they move with the door.  This may be intentional but it is a common view that this looks bad.


And finally, I have been playing the WAD perfectly with a stock version of the most recent revisions of both Zdoom and GZdoom.  These can be got from here:

http://svn.drdteam.org/

Zdoom r1223 and GZdom r177 were compiled by me and I've had no problems with them at all today (and I have used both quite heavily).


Right, so I hope some of that is of some use.  If my WAD is needed, let me know, or if any of the changes I have made are needed, or any further information etc etc

[Chukker]

I appreciate this comprehensive list of corrections. I will try to get them into my version soon. Everyone should know that I don't plan on replacing the version on chucktropolis.com with the native zdoom one. There are large numbers of people that are downloading CQ3 that are my friends and family or are from places like Independent Gaming Source that I just want to provide a standalone game for. I will leave the mod-friendly version up to you guys. Change and modify as you see fit. Remember, I don't actually own Chex Quest 3. As a "derivative product" of the original Chex Quest, it's the property of General Mills.

[Graf Zahl]

I appreciate this comprehensive list of corrections. I will try to get them into my version soon. Everyone should know that I don't plan on replacing the version on chucktropolis.com with the native zdoom one. There are large numbers of people that are downloading CQ3 that are my friends and family or are from places like Independent Gaming Source that I just want to provide a standalone game for. I will leave the mod-friendly version up to you guys. Change and modify as you see fit. Remember, I don't actually own Chex Quest 3. As a "derivative product" of the original Chex Quest, it's the property of General Mills.

Why don't you post a version that comes with an original ZDoom.exe on your site? The problem I am seeing is that people with little technical knowledge will download your version and later upgrade to a newer (G)ZDoom version and then find out that it refuses to load the IWAD because it can't do anything with it. If your own version is the compatible one it will create much less problems in the future.

[Enjay]

And to be fair, from the point of view of a casual observer, the only practical difference between the stand-alone release and the new one packaged to work with an unmodified Zdoom would be the icon looking different.  Doing so would be perfectly possible now that Graf has added native support to Zdoom for the modified chex3 WAD.

ie, if the one on chucktropolis was replaced with the modified IWAD and packaged with an unmodified Zdoom (or nothing changed except the icon) someone wanting nothing more than a stand alone game would get it, and anyone else downloading it would have a file that could be played with current and future versions of Zdoom. 

[Chukker]

Enjay, can I get you to zip up your chex3.wad and email it to me? (chuck@chucktropolis.com) To get this settled, I need to reconcile the differences in our versions. Clearly the version of the wad file that had the decorate lumps added to was not the most current, because you are fixing bugs I had fixed in my own version which I was uploading daily. There is also other polish that needs to make its way into your version.

[Manny Cav]

One other thing I'd like to throw in.


It's a minor cosmetic thing and isn't much to poke at. What it is is that a wall seems to be too tall or something and lack the proper texturing so that it appears very thinly on one side, and then vanishes on the other. The other end of the elevated area is also the same way. It's just a cosmetic thing, mostly, but it'd one more thing to polish off.

[Enjay]

Enjay, can I get you to zip up your chex3.wad and email it to me? (chuck@chucktropolis.com)

No problem.  I've uploaded it to my webspace and have sent you an e-mail with the link.

Let me know of any problems either via e-mail or here. 

[Manny Cav]

I downloaded the latest version of Chex Quest 3. The yellow flemkey still looks a little odd, the black textures are back for the table next to the Bazoik poster in E1M1, and the Flem Mines are still zorching each other. Some of the text is for the pickup messages is also a little different from the original game, though I still don't know if this is deliberate or not.

Chukker, what do you think of Graf Zahl's idea to use a patched version of Chex Quest 3 and include ZDoom itself in the download to give the effect of having a custom engine, but without the strings or hassle? I think it's a great idea that not only allows everyone to get the standalone game that you mentioned, but it also lets them makes Chex Quest mods with the Chex Quest 3 changes and let's them also play it with newer versions of ZDoom, GZDoom, Skulltag, etc.

[Chukker]

Chukker, what do you think of Graf Zahl's idea to use a patched version of Chex Quest 3 and include ZDoom itself in the download to give the effect of having a custom engine, but without the strings or hassle? I think it's a great idea that not only allows everyone to get the standalone game that you mentioned, but it also lets them makes Chex Quest mods with the Chex Quest 3 changes and let's them also play it with newer versions of ZDoom, GZDoom, Skulltag, etc.

This should already be the case. Are you finding that you can't run the latest chex3.wad with zdoom.exe? The latest chex3.exe is really just the most recent zdoom code compiled with some trivial alterations, a new name and new icon. zdoom.pk3 is now unchanged from standard zdoom.

[Dvader0086]

is there a new version on your site yet Chukker?

[Manny Cav]

Chukker, what do you think of Graf Zahl's idea to use a patched version of Chex Quest 3 and include ZDoom itself in the download to give the effect of having a custom engine, but without the strings or hassle? I think it's a great idea that not only allows everyone to get the standalone game that you mentioned, but it also lets them makes Chex Quest mods with the Chex Quest 3 changes and let's them also play it with newer versions of ZDoom, GZDoom, Skulltag, etc.

This should already be the case. Are you finding that you can't run the latest chex3.wad with zdoom.exe? The latest chex3.exe is really just the most recent zdoom code compiled with some trivial alterations, a new name and new icon. zdoom.pk3 is now unchanged from standard zdoom.

I get this error message:
__________
Script error, "DECORATE" line 8:
Replaced type 'FlemoidusCommonus' not found

[Chukker]

Is this running under Graf's most recent build of zdoom that he linked earlier? http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GR15AG20

Just using ZDoom 2.2.0 won't work because Chex 1 and 3 support has only been added in the development version thus far.

[Manny Cav]

No, I'm afraid not. I usually never download beta, test, or otherwise "non-stable" releases of programs, so no, I did not do that. I'll download that when I get the chance and try it out, then.

[Graf Zahl]

Code Select Expand

I just checked this out. There's 3 warnings I got:

[code]
Tried to register class 'ChexPlayer' more than once.
Tried to register class 'PropulsorMissile' more than once.
Tried to register class 'PhaseZorchMissile' more than once.


I see that the only change to the player is a damage factor for 'zorch'. Is there any reason for this? In single player games the player can't hurt itself (aside from explosive damage) but this definition will make it immune to other players' attacks in deathmatch. If the only reason for this is immunity to the propulsor's blast damage that can be better done by adding 'donthurtshooter' to the propulsor's missile.

For the other 2 classes, better do this:

Code Select Expand


// PropulsorMissile ---------------------------------------------------------

actor PropulsorMissileV3 : PropulsorMissile replaces PropulsorMissile
{
DamageType Zorch
DontHurtShooter
}


// PhaseZorchMissile ---------------------------------------------------------

actor PhaseZorchMissileV3 : PhaseZorchMissile replaces PhaseZorchMissile
{
DamageType Zorch
}


to get rid of the warning and handle the propulsor properly.[/code]

[Chukker]

Okay, made this fix. I didn't think about the MP implications of the Zorch damage type.